Mubarak says Gaza tunnels used by fighters to launch 2011 prison break in Egypt

Two former Egyptian presidents appear in the same Cairo courtroom, with Hosni Mubarak testifying in a retrial of Mohammed Morsi over charges related to prison breaks at the height of the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Wednesday’s case is rooted in the 2011 escape of more than 20,000 inmates from Egyptian prisons — including Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood members — during the early days of the 18-day uprising against Mubarak. Morsi and the other Brotherhood leaders escaped two days after they were detained as Mubarak’s security forces tried to undercut the planned protests.

During his two-hour testimony, Mubarak says that former spy chief and vice president Omar Suleiman told him on January 29, 2011, that at least 800 armed people crossed into the norther part of Sinai Peninsula, through tunnels from the Gaza Strip with help from the Muslim Brotherhood group, and freed Morsi and others.

“They entered Egypt through Gaza and had weapons… They headed toward the prisons to release prisoners belonging to Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” Mubarak says.

He also claims Egyptian authorities were unaware at the time of the existence of the smuggling tunnels from Gaza to Sinai, according to the Ynet news site.

— with agencies